Open AccessAnimal fans: Toward a multispecies fan studies
Author(s) -
C. Lee Harrington
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
transformative works and cultures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1941-2258
DOI - 10.3983/twc.2019.1677
Subject(s) - sociality , personhood , situated , non human , affect (linguistics) , posthumanism , fandom , environmental ethics , emotionality , sociology , aesthetics , psychology , ecology , communication , art , social psychology , media studies , biology , epistemology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science
In an exploration of the potential for (and implications of) animal fans—not human fans of animals but nonhuman animals as fans—situated in ongoing debates about the personhood of nonhuman species, I suggest ways that the animal turn taking place in the humanities and social sciences might affect fan studies. I focus on four characteristics associated with both human fans and nonhuman animals: culture, emotionality, sociality, and capacity for creative play.